I have a lot of practice hardening sterling silver wire by drawing
it. I like the harder wire for making unsoldered chains. I'll take
18 ga sterling soft and draw it down to 24ga, with no annealing to
make it slightly harder than full hard. I know that works well for my
designs. I want to try my same designs with gold. I'd like to try it
with both 14K and 18K yellow gold. Can anyone provide me with some
guidance as to what gauge of dead soft yellow gold I should start
with to end up with a hard 24 ga wire? I'm assuming that a hard 14K
or 18K will be about as stiff as hard sterling, but I could use some
guidance on that, too.

Hardness in terms of wire temper is a strictly relative term. Youcan get spring hard lead if you draw it down enough, but that's avery different thing than spring hard steel.

With that said, my experience has been that half-hard 14K gold isspringier than hald hard sterling silver. That makes sense to me,since the 14K gold is more heavily alloyed than sterling silver. Noclue about the 18K though, and I couldn't tell you HOW much springierthe 14K is.

Someone on the list will probably come up with exactly the figuresthat you need, but if not - here's your plan B... Check the chartthat I have on my site for % wire area reduction and resulting wiretemper: http://www.spiderchain.com/other/faq.shtml#temper You can usethat to get a good idea of what temper you're giving your sterlingwire. Then ask a refiner what would be the equivalent working temperfor 14K and 18K. Use the chart to work backwards to your startingwire diameter.

It'll be a bunch of plodding math, but at least it's a option ifnone of the Fine Orchid Folk have a magical answer.

with gold at 560.00 + an oz, why not just purchase some full hard tospring hard 24 g. 18 kt wire..unless you have a lot of time fordrawing it down from say 18g..i think three-four passes of 24" ofwire in a decent draw plate should render just about any 18kt wirehardened if you don't anneal it, but do use some oil of wintergreenor other liquid lubricant on your draw plate ( try to avoid wax onthe drawplate if possible and particularly if it is a sapphiredrawplate) as you proceed so the Au doesn't become brittle and break.24g is pretty small.Remember if you're buying 14kt, you are payingfor wire that is only about 50% gold..., it is harder naturally dueto the Cu and Ag, and the higher the karat the softer the gold..irecommend going with 18 kt for chains- due to the richer colour, and14 karat for the clasps- due to the integral strength if you're justbegining to play with gold. however, 20-22 karat looks beautiful andadds value to the piece.Another consideration is the style of chainyou're after. If it is byzantine or the like, and you are using a lotof jump rings for the construction, 18-22 gauge will give you enoughstrength, but also weight..which may or may not be desirable..thereis no pat answer to your question as it is essentially one ofdesign..have fun, but take shortcuts to makeyour production timeminimized if this is to be your sole means of support..